James T. Cleland - "Mother's Day?" (May 9, 1965)

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-	Even under the drawing down	0:03
	of the saint (indistinct).	0:05
	Let us pray.	0:24
	Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts	0:26
	be acceptable in thy sight.	0:32
	Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer.	0:36
	Amen.	0:41
	Mother's Day is an American creation,	0:50
	the invention of one Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia,	0:56
	who designated the second Sunday of May as an opportunity	1:03
	for each person to remember his,	1:08
	her mother by some act of grateful affection.	1:12
	It is a sentimental festival,	1:20
	which is somewhat permeated with religious overtones.	1:23
	Hence the choice of Sunday for its celebration.	1:29
	Personally, I do not approach the ecclesiastical observance	1:36
	over this occasion with any great enthusiasm	1:42
	for two reasons.	1:47
	The first reason is the vivid recollection	1:51
	of a traumatic homiletical experience.	1:54
	19 years ago, on the second Sunday of May,	1:59
	I substituted for the then Dean of the divinity school	2:05
	in a well-known pulpit,	2:10
	Methodist's pulpit in this state.	2:13
	On entering the church with the resident minister,	2:17
	I noticed that every woman in the congregation had a corsage	2:20
	and every man, a flower buttonhole on his lapel.	2:25
	I said to the minister, "What's wrong?"	2:32
	And he responded, "What's wrong with what?"	2:36
	I commented, "They're all dressed up florally."	2:40
	And he answered, "It's Mother's Day."	2:44
	And I muttered, "God forbid."	2:47
	I had prepared a sermon in which Jezebel	2:52
	had a prominent part.	2:56
	(audience laughing)	2:59
	Now, as I am a carefully prepared impromptu speaker,	3:02
	it was either Jezebel or no sermon.	3:07
	I have never been asked to preach in that church again,	3:12
	(audience laughing)	3:16
	I have never been asked to preach by that minister	3:18
	in any of the churches, which he has served since 1946.	3:20
	And I have never preached a Mother's Day sermon since.	3:27
	The second reason is an aversion to the model	3:33
	and yet crash mockishness which envelops this Sunday.	3:38
	Mother's Day is especially revered season	3:43
	in the commercial holy year,	3:47
	which makes use about genuine affection or embarrassed guilt	3:51
	to boost profits.	3:57
	Of course, Father's Day had to follow with gifts for him,	4:00
	often purchased with his credit cards.	4:05
	And now there is the promise or the threat	4:10
	of mother in-laws day, or should it be mothers in-law day?	4:13
	The unique appropriate flower	4:20
	has been suggested, Snapdragon.	4:23
	(audience laughing)	4:27
	Now, who is next in line?	4:30
	This mercantile approach to Mother's Day	4:35
	has so worried the church	4:38
	that it has recommended a different kind of observance	4:40
	for the second Sunday in May.	4:43
	It suggests that it be recognized as the Festival	4:46
	of the Christian Home.	4:51
	Now that new emphasis is for many people, a sound one,	4:54
	if May metaphors, the sentimental,	4:59
	the modeling aspect of Mother's Day	5:02
	into a spiritual appreciation of the home,	5:06
	the whole, which is so basic a unit,	5:11
	in our Western civilization.	5:15
	So let us turn to the teaching of our Lord on the home	5:18
	with occasional glances at a mother or two.	5:23
	The first part of our morning scripture lesson	5:28
	is captioned in the interpreter's Bible,	5:32
	Jesus through family.	5:36
	Jesus had been teaching in someone's house	5:40
	beside the sea of Galilee,	5:43
	when a message was brought to him that his brothers	5:46
	and his mother had arrived	5:48
	and wanted him to go out and speak to them.	5:51
	'Twas a natural request,	5:56
	which Jesus answered very unnaturally.	5:57
	Here's how Phillips translates the Greek text,	6:02
	"Jesus replied, 'And who are really	6:06
	"'my mother and my brothers?'"	6:10
	And he looked round at the faces of those sitting	6:14
	in a circle about him.	6:17
	"Look, he said, 'My mother and my brothers are here.	6:19
	"'Anyone who does the will of God,	6:25
	"'is brother and sister and mother to me.'"	6:28
	Now these are shocking words.	6:33
	Rough talk,	6:37
	hardly the lectionary lesson for Mother's Day	6:40
	or the Festival of the Christian Home.	6:44
	Jesus' true family were his disciples,	6:48
	his spiritual kith,	6:53
	but not necessarily his blood kin.	6:56
	Now Jesus attitude is understandable.	7:00
	For one thing, the fourth gospel tells us	7:04
	that his brothers did not believe in Him	7:07
	during His lifetime.	7:11
	Mark is even more emphatic than that.	7:13
	He says that Jesus' family thought He was crazy,	7:17
	mad, out of His mind.	7:22
	Beside Himself, schizophrenic.	7:27
	Maybe that is why our Lord was forced to dramatize	7:31
	His conception of the new family of God,	7:35
	by using a pungent a verb as hate	7:38
	about one's attitude, to one's relatives.	7:44
	If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father	7:48
	and mother and wife and children	7:54
	and brothers and sisters, yes	7:59
	and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.	8:01
	Now we may try to soften the impact of that statement	8:08
	by talking about Eastern hyperbole	8:12
	and poetic license and homilectical exaggeration,	8:16
	but surely we discern His intentional emphasis.	8:23
	The kingdom of God has a priority,	8:28
	which may not be usurped by the natural family.	8:34
	And as a result,	8:40
	Jesus was not persona grata with His own family	8:43
	in the days of His flesh.	8:49
	But for another thing,	8:53
	Jesus was a realist	8:57
	regarding the effects of His gospel	9:01
	upon the family.	9:05
	Listen to this worrying passage,	9:08
	again, as Phillip translates it.	9:11
	"Never think that I have come to bring peace	9:14
	"upon the earth.	9:18
	"No, I have not come to bring peace,	9:20
	"but a sword,	9:25
	"for I have come to set a man against his own father,	9:27
	"a daughter against her own mother	9:31
	"and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.	9:35
	"A man's enemies will be those who live in his own house."	9:39
	Now, before we discount this too quickly,	9:47
	as a matter of preaching style,	9:49
	let us remember that this is what actually happened	9:51
	and still happens.	9:57
	But these must have been unintelligible words,	10:00
	hostile words to a Jew,	10:04
	who loved and who kept the fifth commandment.	10:08
	But Jesus was speaking from His own experience,	10:13
	and He was anticipating the experience of His disciples.	10:18
	He had given up His own home for the sake of His mission.	10:22
	His followers might have to do that too.	10:27
	Yes, our first scripture lesson of the morning	10:33
	is a difficult one.	10:37
	Difficult for many of us to understand,	10:40
	more difficult for some of us to follow.	10:44
	The community of the church	10:47
	is preferred to that of the earthly family.	10:51
	And yet do notice that Jesus purpose was instruction	10:56
	rather than censure.	11:01
	He knew that a man needed family ties.	11:03
	He knew that His teaching might loosen, disrupt,	11:09
	disintegrate the old ties.	11:13
	And so he sought a valid worthy substitute.	11:15
	He suggested the fellowship of men and women	11:21
	who would together with mutual assistance,	11:25
	do the will of God.	11:28
	And this is what actually happened in the apostolic church.	11:30
	As we can see from the Acts of the Apostles.	11:36
	In the midst of persecution, they found a beloved community,	11:39
	the household of God.	11:46
	It's interesting to note that from the second part	11:50
	of the morning lesson,	11:53
	when Jesus was dying on the cross,	11:55
	He did not give His mother into the care of her family,	12:00
	but into the care of the church,	12:08
	his new family as symbolized by the beloved disciple,	12:13
	when Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom he loved	12:19
	standing near, He said to His mother,	12:22
	"Woman, behold, your son."	12:26
	Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother."	12:30
	And do you know the next verse?	12:36
	"And from that hour, the disciple took her	12:38
	"to his own home."	12:44
	On the cross Jesus fulfilled the fifth commandment,	12:48
	though its promise was not for Him.	12:52
	In the land that invented Mother's Day,	12:58
	and so surrounds it with all the trimmings	13:02
	of retail advertising,	13:05
	to such an extent that the church has tried somewhat vainly	13:08
	to transform it into the Festival of the Christian Home.	13:12
	It's well to remember what the Gospels	13:16
	tell us about Jesus' home,	13:18
	and about the church,	13:22
	as the Christian's real home.	13:24
	Now before you damn me too quickly,	13:29
	let me emphasize one central fact,	13:33
	Christian sociology is rooted and grounded	13:37
	in the idea of the home.	13:42
	It stands foursquare on the analogy of the family.	13:46
	If one can stand on an analogy.	13:53
	Now this is because of the teaching of Jesus.	13:57
	God is not a king.	13:59
	He is not even primarily a judge.	14:03
	He is like a father,	14:08
	like the father of the prodigal son,	14:13
	men and women are not his subjects,	14:17
	not prisoners at the bar, but sons and daughters,	14:21
	if they want to be.	14:30
	In the relationship to one another,	14:32
	they are not fellow servants or fellow convicts,	14:35
	but brothers and sisters,	14:40
	spiritual siblings	14:43
	in the family of God.	14:46
	Brethren is a commonly used noun	14:48
	in almost all the Apostles in the New Testament.	14:51
	Jesus and his followers found in the concept of the home,	14:55
	the idea of which best expressed	15:01
	the life of the community of God,	15:04
	both in heaven and on earth.	15:06
	Home is a good word.	15:09
	Moreover, it may even be that Mother's Day	15:13
	hints at something for those of us	15:18
	who are in the Protestant wing of Christianity,	15:20
	is it possible that we have omitted,	15:25
	neglected the feminine qualities in Godhead?	15:28
	Have you ever heard a sermon preached in Isaiah 66:13?	15:35
	"For thus says the Lord as one whom his mother comforteth.	15:41
	"So will I comfort you.	15:48
	"As one whom his mother comforteth,	15:51
	"so will I comfort you."	15:56
	Maybe that's the passage I should have chosen for today	15:58
	for a sermon on the motherhood of God.	16:02
	Perhaps our separated Roman Catholic brethren are wiser	16:07
	than we are willing to allow	16:12
	in making so much of the Virgin Mary.	16:14
	For them, feminine qualities are incorporated by osmosis,	16:18
	into Godhead and life requires feminine qualities	16:25
	to be complete, to be well-rounded.	16:31
	Have you ever noticed in Canada that Protestant homes,	16:35
	which would not display a picture of the Virgin Mary,	16:41
	had have to have one of Queen Elizabeth	16:46
	the second of England in a very prominent position.	16:48
	Now never underestimate the power of a woman,	16:55
	not even theologically.	16:59
	Perhaps it's time for a reformed Protestantism	17:03
	to recover on March 25th.	17:06
	The enunciation of the blessed Virgin for which Mother's Day	17:09
	is hardly a fit alternative.	17:13
	Christian sociology is a family sociology.	17:18
	It honors the home,	17:22
	but it has never forgotten that there is such a thing	17:24
	as priorities, that God and His service come first,	17:30
	even before the natural home.	17:37
	This is dramatized for us in the celibacy	17:39
	of the Roman Catholic clergy, male and female.	17:43
	Even though we do not accept this manifestation	17:47
	of the principle, it reminds us of the principle,	17:50
	everything in its proper place in its appropriate order.	17:55
	Now this we recognize in other spheres.	18:00
	Our government may demand that a man leave	18:04
	his father and mother, his wife and children,	18:09
	and serve in Vietnam or the Dominican Republic,	18:14
	or Chilé, or Antarctica.	18:20
	Even the great industrial companies with overseas	18:24
	ramifications may disrupt family life.	18:28
	And this, we accept or else sever the allegiance.	18:32
	And so with the Christian faith,	18:37
	it may demand that a man or a woman leave father and mother	18:41
	and find a home in the family of God.	18:48
	Now, what does this biblical exposition	18:54
	say to us this morning?	18:56
	To some of us it says nothing,	18:59
	because we don't want to hear it.	19:01
	We'd like the de facto that stoppeth his ear.	19:05
	Well, that's that.	19:09
	To others opposite says nothing	19:12
	for a very different reason.	19:14
	There is no conflict between our birthly family	19:18
	and our heavenly family,	19:24
	between our natural kin and our spiritual kith,	19:27
	between our home and our church,	19:32
	our mothers and fathers brought us up	19:35
	in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,	19:38
	the family table, and the family pew	19:41
	are two items of furniture in the one home.	19:44
	Good, it's a blessed thing when our earthly parents	19:50
	and our heavenly father see eye to eye.	19:54
	One recalls the happy words written to Timothy.	19:58
	"I am reminded of your sincere faith,	20:02
	"a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois,	20:05
	"and your mother Eunice.	20:10
	"And now I am sure dwells in you." I know people like that.	20:12
	Here's a senior student nurse planning to spend the summer	20:17
	in Nicaragua and then in the fall	20:23
	to work in Appalachian, Kentucky	20:27
	at the frontier nursing service.	20:31
	Now this is essential, but low salary employment.	20:33
	I sought to find her motivation.	20:39
	The answer was short, simple, and assured.	20:42
	My parents are missionaries in South America,	20:47
	the earthly family and the heavenly family	20:53
	are one and the same.	20:56
	Here's another student.	20:59
	I graduated two years back now serving	21:01
	with the peace corps in Africa.	21:04
	Are her father and mother at odds with her?	21:07
	Do they think she is deranged, beside herself?	21:10
	They not only approved her going,	21:15
	they spent part of last summer in Kenya with her.	21:18
	Some of us are happily in like circumstances.	21:23
	Today then is the Festival of the Christian Home.	21:27
	But to yet others of us,	21:33
	this exposition comes as a warning,	21:34
	a warning to get out our priorities straight,	21:39
	right in proper order.	21:44
	Now this is not easy.	21:48
	Don't let us fool ourselves.	21:51
	The decision may be a matter of spiritual warfare,	21:55
	not peace, but a sword.	21:59
	Any counselor will tell you of the agony of decision	22:03
	when two loyalties clash.	22:09
	I think it was Hagel who described tragedy in this way.	22:13
	Tragedy does not arise when we are given a choice	22:22
	of right or wrong,	22:28
	tragedy arises when we are given a choice of two rights.	22:33
	And we choose only one.	22:41
	And any counselor will tell you that that is tragedy.	22:47
	Then the question of priorities is important,	22:54
	and divisive and painful,	22:58
	especially when the foes of a man are his own household,	23:03
	as he tries to listen and obey God.	23:08
	What happened to Jesus in his relations	23:13
	to the home at Nazareth, can happen again, can happen here.	23:15
	It would be wise for us to examine ourselves,	23:22
	to know where we stand to have counted the cost	23:27
	of being on the Lord's side before the moment to decide.	23:33
	Who is my mother or my brethren?	23:41
	It's an old question.	23:49
	It was once answered.	23:52
	What do we do with the question?	23:56
	And with the answer once given.	24:02
	Amen, let us pray.	24:09
	Oh God who spoke and who speaks,	24:17
	assist us to hear the questions,	24:23
	assist us to give the answers	24:27
	as thou would have us do	24:30
	in the spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord,	24:33
	and now make grace, mercy and peace from God,	24:37
	the Father and His son, Jesus Christ,	24:43
	be with you all this day and forever more.	24:47

Item Info

Title:

James T. Cleland - "Mother's Day?" (May 9, 1965)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r49w0f09j

Date:

May 9, 1965

Speaker:

Cleland, James T. (James Tough), 1903-1974

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0296
ref5797_6fg
uachapelsermaud
duke:627919
dcrau002295
ark:/87924/r49w0f09j
8132fd4b-966f-4223-a9a2-80e95c5ceb47

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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James T. Cleland - "Mother's Day?" (May 9, 1965)

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1. James T. Cleland - "Mother's Day?" (May 9, 1965)

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James T. Cleland - "Mother's Day?" (May 9, 1965)

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